Here is a list of 36 top classified ads where people actually view, post ads and buy stuff. We have eliminated all junk sites from this list. There are no ffa pages, forums acting like classified sites,classified sites which are full of spam or which have no traffic and are not well maintained. These are real classified ads site where if you post your ad you actually have a serious chance of somebody seeing your ad and responding. There are no sites here with an Alexa ranking over 150,000. This means that the sites below all get serious traffic. Some of these Sites are targeted at specific countries but some are suitable for South African Postings such as GUMTREE for example

1. http://www.craigslist.org- The grandaddy of classified ads sites.

2. http://www.backpage.com The second busiest classified site after Craigslist. This is where all the escort ads went after Craigslist took down their erotic ads section due to pressure from 17 Attorney Generals. Not so with Village Voice owned Backpage.com. They told the attorney generals they were just fine with their erotic ads section thank you. Those guys at the Village Voice have major cohones!

3. http://www.gumtree.com Weird name but this site is one of the busiest classifieds sites out there. This high traffic classifieds site is focused on UK ads.

4. http://www.oodle.com This serious classified site has partnerships with ForRent.com in the US and Autotrader UK.

5. http://www.ebayclassifieds.com The official classifieds site for Ebay.

6. http://www.olx.com This board has a presence in most countries and can be read in English or Spanish.

7. http://www.usfreeads.com A popular US focused site with a large business opportunity and pet section.

8. http://www.classifiedads.com Classifieds focused on the English speaking world. US, UK, AU, and India.

9. http://www.inetgiant.com A green board not only in color but in their ads. They have a well represented area for green products. The board is pretty much translated in most languages. I checked their Lithuanian board. No ads there yet. Do you want to be the first?

10. http://adpost.com Solid board with presences in the United States, Singapore,Canada,Malaysia, United Kingdom, Philippines, Ireland, Australia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

11. http://adlandpro.com Well established board with a strong focus on internet marketing, business opportunities, and website promotion.

12. http://www.classifiedsforfree.com A well organized world-wide classifieds board.

13. http://www.salespider.com/online-classifieds-free-advertising Classified ads are only one part of this business site. They have forums, sell leads, and offer business tools for online businesses.

14. http://www.yakaz.com A lean uncluttered board which reads your ip and directs your ad posting accordingly. US based as far as I can tell. However, I have not yet tried accessing it with a Chinese ip. Maybe the entire site changes language with my ip. I hate being a slave to my ip. What if I am a Greek living in Spain?

15. http://www.thefreeadforum.com High traffic site which is getting serious promotion. So if you have something to sell this is the place to get that type of targeted traffic!

16. http://www.domesticsale.com US classifieds site which allows car dealers and other heavy advertisters to bulk upload large amounts of listings.

17. http://www.pennysaverusa.com/classifieds/usa/index.html This is the online version of the old Penny Saver newspaper which was a very popular print newspaper with discount deals and classified ads.

18. http://epage.com This site has been in business since 1994. That is before we had Google. It looks somewhat like Usfreeads.com but with less emphasis on business opportunities. They have an affiliate program with over 34,000 affiliates. This means if you post your ad here it goes out on a feed to over 30,000 other sites who run their ads. This means more exposure for you. Many of these sites have programs where other websites run their feeds. This gives you quite a bit more exposure.

19. http://www.recycler.com Simple easy to negotiate classifieds board.

20. http://www.webcosmo.com US based with worldwide advertising possibilities.

21. http://www.hoobly.com The cleanest looking classifieds site so far. Just the ads. No clutter at all. Very Googlesque in their design. It must be working for them. Over 15,000 people have clicked their like button.

22. http://www.freeadlists.com They do it all: personals, cars, pets and they do it all over the world though they are US based. They even claim on their homepage that if you are a man looking for a woman you can find one here! Watch out Match.com!

23. http://www.sell.com How much did this domain name cost them? I give them number 1 on domain name value. Excellent classifieds site as well. Kudos for not just squatting the domain name. They have been running online classifieds since 1999. Their advertising engine has been used by big business directories such as AT&T’s YELLOWPAGES.com, newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, and niche online properties such as sellhomes.com. Sell.com is a part of a network of advertising properties. Again, if you advertise on many of these sites your ad will simultaneously run on thousands of other partner sites.

24. http://www.bestwayclassifieds.com/ Claims to be the fastest growing free advertising site in the world. Hmmm, I do not think so. Could they even have said one of the fastest? In any case they may not be the fastest growing site but they do get some good traffic and they have a nice classifieds site worth posting to.

25. http://www.webclassifieds.us A solid well designed board with a .us domain name. What else could you want? They seem to monetize their site quite a bit with Adsense which is good and bad. It means they include more features on the free ads, including free pictures and youtube video (many free boards charge for this) but visitors could be distracted by the Adsense ads.

26. http://www.americanlisted.com A family friendly US only board. I guess if you are an escort or into SM you should stick with Backpage.com. Your church announcements would be welcome here though.

27. http://www.freeadscity.com Lean easy to read worldwide board with non classified ads discretely at the bottom of the board.

28. http://www.chooseyouritem.com This is what they have to say about themselves “Place your classified ads with us and your ads appear not only on our site but also on over 70 partner websites — including over 30 classic car or vehicle related websites, as well as ISP’s, real estate, media, shopping and search networks. Each month, over 1 million visitors view tens of millions of our pages – making our Classified Network one of strongest in the country. Not only is our exposure the best but we also provide the best in value. ” Sounds like a good deal to me.

29. http://www.daype.com Straight forward US only board.

30. http://geebo.com They have quotes about connecting communities, building safe environments and how they are leaders of a “revolution of how classifieds sites see themselves as responsible citizens.” So if you want to join their “nice” revolution go ahead. And while you are at it why not sell that old Buick Enclave you have been meaning to get rid of. Vive La Revolution! (Pervs see Backpage.com)

31. http://www.claz.org I like the name. This site is actually an agregator of classified sites within 250 miles with picture previews. They feature ads from most of the sites I mention here. It does not look like you can place an ad directly here but it probably will appear if you place it on any of the other sites listed here.

32. http://wantedwants.com Well, you can stop looking at classifieds sites right now, forget Craigslist, forget Backpage, nope, it has been officially decided. These guys officially declare that their site is the best classifieds site in the world! I do not agree. But I think their site is worth posting to. Respectable traffic, and sharp unique and fun design. US centered with opportunity for international ads as well.

33. http://www.freeclassifieds.com No nonsense classified site which has their own Android application so you can post ads from your mobile phone. They even have their own QR code that you can scan with your Andorid phone to get immediate sucint info about freeclassifieds.com. Kudos again for the domain name. Mobile friendly site. Smart!

34. http://www.bonqo.com Huge homepage showcase of photo ads. Why not put your photo ad on their homepage?

35. http://www.buysellcommunity.com They sell everything but it looks like they have a penchant for Cocker Spaniels. US and Canada classifieds mainly.

36. http://businesslist.com/post-classified-ad/ Straight forward US targeted classifieds site. All your ads are automatically tweeted to their twitter account. They also sell business lists, hence the name Businesslist.com.

If you have your favorite classified sites please tell us about them in the comments area and especially tell us why they are your favorites. If you found this post helpful please tweet, like, bookmark, Digg, Stumbleupon, and buy an ad during Superbowl half-time. You get the idea. I am shamelessly begging for promotion.

Basic Paypal IPN Setup

1. 1

   Go to the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) setup page in your PayPal account. First log in to your PayPal account, click on “Profile” and then the “Instant Payment Notification” button in the “Selling Preferences” list. Setting this up ensures that your Zen Cart store and PayPal are synchronized with each other when payments are made.

2. 2

   To properly set up IPN service, click on “Edit IPN Settings” on the setup page. Enter the IPN notification URL and select the radio button for “Receive IPN messages.” Click the “Save” button and then on “Back to Profile Summary” on the next page. The IPN notification URL is found in the top left-hand side of the PayPal IPN’s information settings in the payment modules of your Zen Cart administrator area.

3. 3

   Set the Auto Return feature to allow customers to automatically return to your Zen Cart store after paying with Paypal. Click on “Website Payment Preferences” under the “Selling Preferences” list on your Paypal profile page. Turn Auto Return on by selecting the “On” radio button. Enter the “Return URL” in the space provided; this URL is found next to where your IPN notification URL was listed in your Paypal payment module in the Zen Cart admin area. Scroll to the bottom of the Website Payment Preferences page and click “Save.”

4. 4

   Log in to your Zen Cart administrator panel with the username and password that you created when you signed up with Zen Cart.

5. 5

   Go to the payment modules in your Zen Cart admin control panel. Click the “Payment” option under the “Modules” tab to see a list of all possible payment options for your customers. Click the “Paypal IPN – Website Payments Standard” payment option and click “Edit” at the top.

6. 6

   Enter the appropriate information in the left-hand-side information box to properly set up PayPal on your site. Confirm that the “True” radio button is marked to enable the PayPal module. Enter your primary premier or business PayPal email address under the “Business ID” section. Choose other desired options in this section as well, such as selecting your preferred transaction currency; click “Update” at the bottom of the page when finished. If you’re unsure of your primary PayPal address, this is the email address marked as primary in the “Email” section on your PayPal profile page.

PayPal Express Checkout Setup

7. 1

   Go to the API Access setup page in your PayPal account. First log in to your PayPal account and click on “API Access” under the “Account Information” list in your PayPal profile page.

8. 2

   Click “View API Certificate” on the API Access page to view your API credentials. Write down or copy the API username, password, and signature on the next page.

9. 3

   Log into your Zen Cart administration and choose the “Paypal Express Checkout” option in the Payment modules. Select the “True” radio button to enable this payment option; scroll down and set any other desired settings, such as choosing to allow customers to “skip” the checkout payment page when making a payment. Paste your API username, password, and signature in the appropriate boxes. Select “Live” to make the PayPal Express Checkout payment option ready to use. Click “Update” at the bottom of the page when finished.

Technorati Tags: paypal, zen cart

If you are a entrepeneur this a great opportunity to earn online income.

From the mouth of Drop Shippers South Africa:

“Drop Shippers SA is a drop shipping standardized trading platform in South Africa. Drop Shippers SA connects offline and online retailers directly with million products’ manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and craftsmen. DropShippers SA is a sophisticated drop ship platfor where Suppliers list there inventory for Retailers to place orders. Suppliers bring their unique, competitive skills and products into the market. Retailers are free from high risk stock investment and time consuming repacking and shipping. They spend all their time doing marketing and building stronger customer relationship. We do our best to build a trading platform as safe,seamless and painless as possible.”

Here are some ways you can sell online to get you started.

www.bidorbuy.co.za
is the 20th most visited website in South Africa . They only charge a small % of your sales fee and are South Africa’s biggest online market place. It can’t be any easier than selling on bid or buy. The buyer EFT’s you, you EFT Drop Shippers, the goods get delivered directly to your buyer and you make your markup.

Our own bidorbuy online store is here

www.junkmail.co.za is great place to place free ads and they are the 40th most visited site in south africa.

www.facebook.com How many friends do you have on facebook. Just post your latest hottest products on your status update. You can also create a facebook page and group to promote your business.

Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are probably the best place for paid advertising.

Create a free blog and keep people informed. You can start of like this and then you can move on to your own website.

With Joomla it is so easy to create your own online shop. If you don’t know what joomla is it is a complete content management system. Other developers have done all the work.

www.manfredk.com For affordable Joomla and other websites.

You just choose what you whant and then you put your website together!

Setup your bulk emailer and autoresponderhere

You can create email and sms campaigns aswell as surveys and keep your customers up to date on any specials you may have. The free account allows you to have 50 people in your mailing list. Once your customer base grows you can upgrade to R100 per month starter account.

Earn yourself R100.00 for every person you refer to Dropshippers.co.za. To get your account with dropshippers visit them here

Technorati Tags: drop ship, drop shipping south africa, dropshippers.co.za, dropshipping

The money is in the list. If you are not building a list of subscribers who are interested in your products and services that you can market to over and over you are wasting your advertising dollars. This is the number 1 most important tool you need for marketing on the internet period.

So which is the best autoresponder service? In my opinion it is Aweber. I was a 4 year customer of one of their main competitors when recently I switched my sign up forms for new subscribers to Aweber. I was stunned. For the same traffic I doubled my subscriber rate! I got twice as many confirmed opt in subscribers with Aweber than I did with their main competitor! I went from about 80 confirmed opt in subscribers per day to 180!!!! This means with the other service that I had for 4 years I had been losing about 100 subscribers per day. Considering that each subscriber is worth about Ten Rand that comes to about R 3000.00 per month loss by choosing the wrong autoresponder service!!

Why did the former service perform so poorly? Email deliverability. This service got themselves on some blacklists and the confirmation emails people get to confirm their subscriptions were going directly to the trash. Wasted advertising Rands, wasted time!

With Aweber ALL of my confirmation emails were getting directly to the inbox and therefore more people confirmed and joined my newsletters.

Aweber just has it together. They deliver big time. If you have another autoresponder service I would switch. I you do not then sign up below for Aweber’s free test drive and get educated directly from Aweber about how valuable autoresponder can be to your business. Do it right the first time and you could save thousands of dollars! Don’t make my mistake and choose the wrong autoresponder company.

Technorati Tags: autoresponder, aweber, email marketing

Firstly you need a good domain name. Try to get a domain name that is catchy and that will hook attention. Make sure it isn’t boring. Check here to see if your Domain Name is still available.Try to put the benefit and a main keyword in. Sometimes the domain might not be available, but if it is really good, consider purchasing it.I recommend you use GoDaddy to purchase your domain as they are the largest domain registrar. But if you don’t want to spend a dime on the domain I suggest you use .co.cc domains which are free.

Secondly you will need a hosting service to host your domain. You need a reliable service to avoid wasting time. I highly recommend HostGator here. Though if you need a cheap Host use MyStoreHosting which offer decent free web-hosting.

Now you need to connect the two, the domain, and the hosting server. This is done by using the domain to point to the hosting server through the use of a nameserver. If you listened to me and bought both a Domain at GoDaddy and the Hosting at HostGator, then simply login in to GoDaddy. Go to your domain and click on it, then click on the nameserver icon, then change the nameservers to the ones HostGator emailed you. They usually are something like this:

NS1.HostGator.com

NS2.HostGator.com

The procedure is almost the same for .co.cc domains. The activation will usually take up to 48 hours (in rare cases up to 72 hours)

You are now ready to upload and install your blog. Using HostGator this is real simple. Go to yourdomain.com/cpanel and log in. At the bottom of the page, click on Fantastico. Now on the left hand side there is a link to WordPress (Open Sources Blogging Software). Click on it and select new installation. Fill in the form and install wordpress.

This is it! Your blog is now up and running. All you need to do now is to start posting. Go to yourdomain.com/wp-login.php. On the left side you will see posts. Click on add new under it.

If you want to attract traffic to your site I suggest you get a premium theme, you won’t regret it. The two big names in this area are woothemes and elegant themes

Next thing you need to do is to make sure the world knows about your blog.

Premium Themes

Hosting

Free Domain

Technorati Tags: free blog, how to start a blog, manfredk